assateague wrote:No. You claimed that value was based on scarcity. I claimed that it was based on want. Your example does nothing aside from support exactly what I said. Until somebody wants something, it doesn't matter if it's everywhere or almost nowhere. It will have no value. "Want" is the precursor to "scarcity", when it comes to value.

Want isn't a precursor to scarcity, but it is to value.

Can something be valuable that is not scarce?

To use your earlier example, air/oxygen.

Only becomes valuable in a time of scarcity.

Not true. It is valuable because I need it to live. If it is not there, I die, but if it is there, it is still valuable. And if I put a plastic bag over my head, it is scarce to ME, but that does not change the fact that there is an abundance of it every else. If it is abundant, it is valuable. If it is scarce, it is valuable.

Serial killers are scarce. But they aren't valuable.

WOLVERINES

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Let a man vote to give himself a fish and he eats until society collapses.

assateague wrote:No. You claimed that value was based on scarcity. I claimed that it was based on want. Your example does nothing aside from support exactly what I said. Until somebody wants something, it doesn't matter if it's everywhere or almost nowhere. It will have no value. "Want" is the precursor to "scarcity", when it comes to value.

Want isn't a precursor to scarcity, but it is to value.

Can something be valuable that is not scarce?

CLEAN water.

FIFY

Only if clean water is scarce.

I"ve been crapping upstream of your drinking water supply. Sorry.

In a free society, it is not the obligation of the citizen to prove to the government that he is a good person. It is the obligation of the government to prove to the rest of the citizenry that the citizen is a bad person, with probable cause.

assateague wrote:No. You claimed that value was based on scarcity. I claimed that it was based on want. Your example does nothing aside from support exactly what I said. Until somebody wants something, it doesn't matter if it's everywhere or almost nowhere. It will have no value. "Want" is the precursor to "scarcity", when it comes to value.

assateague wrote:No. You claimed that value was based on scarcity. I claimed that it was based on want. Your example does nothing aside from support exactly what I said. Until somebody wants something, it doesn't matter if it's everywhere or almost nowhere. It will have no value. "Want" is the precursor to "scarcity", when it comes to value.

assateague wrote:No. You claimed that value was based on scarcity. I claimed that it was based on want. Your example does nothing aside from support exactly what I said. Until somebody wants something, it doesn't matter if it's everywhere or almost nowhere. It will have no value. "Want" is the precursor to "scarcity", when it comes to value.

Want isn't a precursor to scarcity, but it is to value.

Can something be valuable that is not scarce?

CLEAN water.

FIFY

Only if clean water is scarce.

I"ve been crapping upstream of your drinking water supply. Sorry.

dont crap in my bottles, please.

That takes talent...

Not for AT. His azz is so tight, he could thread a turd through a 1/4" bolt hole.

In a free society, it is not the obligation of the citizen to prove to the government that he is a good person. It is the obligation of the government to prove to the rest of the citizenry that the citizen is a bad person, with probable cause.

Gold and silver also have intrinsic value because they are tradable, attractive to humans ( shiny ), and fairly immutable. A gold or Silver coin is very hard to destroy or make useless. Gold and silver can be seen and held in your hand.

It can not be counterfeited like fiat currency. This is why Gold and Silver are true money. Fiat currency can be printed on a whim, thus devaluing all other units. See the Weinmar Republic.

The problem today is rehypothecation. We live in a world of way too many debts and not enough good collateral to back them. The solution the bankers have arranged is to basically fractional reserve the good collateral among the many debts. This is basically what rehypothication is. I have posted extensively about this....

think of a mortgage. it is sold off to another bank, then bundled, sliced and diced. put up as collateral, then sold off again. ....ad infinium...if/when that asset becomes toxic as in a default, the massive debts stacked on top of it crumble. who gets to claim the original loan as collateral? See the problem??? There are litterally TRILLION and TRILLIONS of dollars of debt in this position. This is the main reason why the FED has over a trillion dollars in worthless MBS securities sitting on it's balance sheet. If those losses were to be realized, it is not the real losses that are the problem-it's the shadow losses through all the rehypothication that simply can not be paid off! A massive daisy chain of bad debts.....ad infinium....

The Cajun 7 Course Meal; 1 lb. of boudin and a six pack of Abita beer.

JuniorPre 360 wrote:I couldn't believe how much a wedding ring cost when I bought one. I closed my eyes, swiped my card, and saw me in a nice 16 ft flat bottom boat with a surface drive towing a layout boat drift away into the fog. It has yet to return.

Humans will always put value on shiney things like gold and diamonds. But gold has a ton of uses. It's found in all of our computers, tv's, cell phones, cars, pretty much everywhere. People actually buy computer parts and melt the gold out.

You got burned. As did I and so does everyone else. I talked the jewelry store down from $2,500 to $1250 for my ex-wifes wedding ring. Three years later they were selling them for $250 during a closeout sale. I did a bunch of digging and pinned my present wifes custom jeweler down in a discussion a few years later. He told me that there is as much as an 800% mark up for jewelry. I bought my wifes wedding band with a diamond, a ruby, and a saphire in white gold for $600 from that particular jewler. It is easily a $5,000 ring at a regular jewelry store. We got better stones, and a custom ring for that price. Take your wifes ring in and have it assayed by a neutral assessor. Then do some comparison shopping and see what that type of ring sells for used. You are way in the hole. Jewelry is one of the biggest rip offs in the world. Only very rarely can you get what you paid into it back out of it. It is like buying a new car. You can kiss 10% to 20% of purchase price goodbye as soon as you walk out the door with it. In a year or two you will often only get 50% back, and it goes downhill from there.

There is no shortage of diamonds. They are one of the singularly most overpriced items in the world. The last time I bought a piece of jewelry at a regular jewelry store, I worked it down from $2,000 to $500 by talking to the manager. She told me no on the price and called me back both times when I walked. The wife was astounded that they would come down so far. She has since found the custom jewler she uses and he charges us what the jewelry is worth instead of gouging us like a conventional store does.

I almost threw up when I was reading this. I am never buying another piece of a waste of good hard earned money again.

DeBeers has a world wide monopoly on diamonds. They are not scarce at all. The market is highly constrained to push up prices. the wedding band tradition with a diamond was started buy guess who in the 1950's...you got it-DeBeers. There is a warehouse in Africa several football fields big that is stacked full of nothing but diamonds. Highly guarded it is.....

The Cajun 7 Course Meal; 1 lb. of boudin and a six pack of Abita beer.